sprints and sprinkles

now onto the events in my life to which i eluded in my last post. let's start with the minor and move to the major.

my fiance and i are training for the soldier field 10 -- a 10-mile race that starts at the stadium and ends with me heaving and crawling across the grand 50-yard finish line, visually blown-up larger than life on the jumbo tron. exciting! my nerves are tweaked by this, however, because the revelation of running this race only hit about 7 weeks before race day, and so there is no room for slacking or injuries of any sort. and anyone that knows me and my meager hobby running, knows that i have a veritable gravitational pull for strains, sprains and splints of all sorts. i am a stellar and olympic-worthy bow-legged, orthotic- and stability shoe-wearing, inhaler sucking, snapping-hip syndrome individual who just choked terribly on her coffee as she attempted to write this. slick. just call me super fly as i sprint past 'ya...

my dogs are reveling in and are revolted by the latest antics brought on by this event.
--reveling because they get to accompany us on our shorter runs, and being athletes themselves they live for a few miles of good hard lunging followed by an icy dip in lake michigan. they're just little guys and so we max out their jaunts about town at 4 miles, and that means they can't tag along for our longer training runs which at this point have only reached 5 miles (6 this sunday!).
--they are revolted by this turn of events because the last time their "mom and dad" crept out early in the morning for a race, it was the winter-time "rudolph ramble" and we wound up coming home with these hilarious foam deer antlers which were handed out during the event. needless to say they wound up donning donner's headgear for many-a photographs and were none too pleased with me at the end.

i know. i torture them so. and now onto what tortures me...

wedding planning itself i do not find to be painful as of yet. i'm sure as time goes on, i will change my tune. at the moment, however, what i find to be rather painful is reaching my arm into my mailbox that is just a little too high for me to properly see into, and yanking down on top of my head pile after pile of wedding vendor advertisements, all worded as if they've been my friend for years with a twinge of momma-knows-best and we're-what's-best for you. i actually keep a planning binder with a section dedicated to the most obnoxious solicitations, and those are the folks that i will absolutely NOT consider even if it means having to hum my own songs at the reception. i especially hate the ones where it appears as if someone had a few too many happy hour beverages and lazily chucked a series of business cards into an envelope, then covered it with scratchy handwriting that is barely legible and smudged with fingerprints of, oh, i don't know... is that mayonnaise? take note, fellas.

anyway, my main point of pre-stress comes in the form of food and dessert. i haven't quite gone full-force into tackling this one yet, but it's a-comin'. obviously, i am a gluterini. my sister is also a gluterini and a sans-corn-erini. she's also the maid of honor. my fiance's sisters will be bridesmaids (pending formal asking by me and acceptance by them) and one of them has severe nut/peanut allergies and cannot come near anything that has grown on a tree. following, my cousin who will most likely be in attendance is nut/peanut allergic. take that caterers!! it's a one-two punch!! all prayers go towards one decent vendor being able to tackle all of this, and addressing it in such a way that i feel confident in them and their expertise.

but then comes the cake...

the wedding will take place in newport, rhode island. and i need to find a GF baker that is capable of making something that is both delish and decent to look at. i've been on some websites for specialty bakers in RI and MA and have to admit that their wedding cake photos are appalling at best, forcing me into a state of utter shock at the fact that they would post images of these disastrous, crooked monstrosities in the "portfolio" section of their website. out of desperation i joined a celiac yahoo! group in new england, and received a recommendation for celia cakes in MA. unfortunately, they do not have many images on their site, but from the feedback received on the group site people have been extremely pleased with their cakes. now... fingers crossed that they live up to these expectations, and will delivery to RI without doubling the cost of flour, water and frosting.

any advice or recommendations for the RI area? i beg of you... please let me know!

the wedding will be in the fall of 2009, so there's plenty of time for planning still. that's an extremely busy time of year for that location, so we need to get the major vendors booked soon, but after that we can sit back for a month or so. thus far the location is locked down, ready to go, and utterly fabulous in every way, shape and elegant form. the date is set and ready to go. two major items checked off my ever-expanding, allergy-friendly list.

and so the race begins in more ways than one. and i will keep you updated all the while. in the mean time, i will keep chugging along...